thunderstruck
by Dear Aunt Elladora
Summary: All it takes is one evening in the dark for a relationship to take a more serious tone. [P&K]


and then there is no mystery left.. -- **rilo kiley**

Thunder rumbled as Phil flicked his turn signal on, gray skies clouded the neighborhood street he pulled onto with an ease borne from familiarity. Lil had glared had him before he left as she geared up for a night with the TV & junk food,when all he'ddone was warn her about the weather report and she'd assumed he was trying to get her riled up.Something about lightening struck Lil the wrong way -- excuse the pun.

Phil's was the only car in the driveway as he pulled into park and slammed the driver door shut, walking up the stone steps with his hands deep in his pockets. The doorbell echoed into the house as he stood on the stoop with his head cocked, mind preparing. The door swung open and a cheeky grin filled his face, stepping forward, shutting himself in soundly.

She was still standing in the doorway so he pressed forward, dropping his mouth to hers soundly. He held her soft cheeks in his large fingers, but she didn't look up to meet his intent gaze.

"I missed you," he breathed her in, but she stepped back quietly.

Blinking, she asked where the pizza was.

"Shit," Phil cursed, still smiling, "knew I forgot something."

Her only response was a simple "oh," as she turned and walked toward the kitchen.

He followed quizzically, down the dark hall and past the dark den and into the dimly lit kitchen. Her eyes were lost, gazing out the over-the-sink window into the just beginning storm. Her hands resed on the edge of the counter, looking past the glass and past the old backyard and past the high fence and beyond the strips of neighborhood. Puzzled, he came up beside her, placing a consoling hand on her arm.

They locked eyes before she shrugged his hand off, silently shuffling to the living room. His hands pressed together, sighing, and he headed the opposite direction for the fridge. Assuming they were about to have some fun on the couch, he swigged some water from a bottle and headed happily to follow her.

Instead, he found her folded up tightly, tucked into the corner of the couch -- untouchable. The TV left an eerie blue glow on her face as she flicked through the channels, eyes focused solely on the screen. Her expression was oddly puckered, but Phil plopped down beside her anyway. Within the first ten minutes of CNN, his hand was stroking her arm deliberately.

Her head snapped 'round to face him, and he set on his most innocent expression.

"Did it ever occur to you that _maybe _I'm just not in the mood tonight, Phillip?"

Well, that was certainly a kick in the stomach. Phil removed his offensive ligament, shuffling to resettle on the couch facing her fully, the mood killed.

"Is this about the pizza?" he sighed.

"NO!" she shreiked, "this isn't about the Goddamn PIZZA!"

"Hey, hey. Sorry," he tried to console her verbally, extremely concerned with the fact she might just rip his arm out of socket if he attempted to touch her any time soon. "I just know how you like to eat, babe."

She looked exasperated and dead tired, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Who knew? Who _knew _you'd _be _this way. I thought you were my best friend."

"Hey now," he chuckled lightly, "I wouldn't say that."

"Oh so you _don't _care about me?" the glint in her eyes was one he'd seen a million times, and tried to avoid as much as physically possible for a seventeen-year-old male.

He tried to explain himself: "No! You know I care about you; I've cared about you since we toddled together. All I meant was we haven't necassarily been _best friend-like _lately."

"Just because we makeout on a regular basis now, we can't be as close and considerate as we once were?"

"Kimi," he dropped his tone, not eager to get into a fight, "you know that's not true. I just mean that, well.. Dil, for example, is my best friend. That doesn't mean he's given me a hickey. Not that I've ever wanted him to. Okay, maybe Dil's not the best example there. But you get me."

"Whatever," she bitterly retorted, returning to her news programme.

They sat in silence, a storm brewing outside and between them, thunder echoing but things unsaid thick. That is, until one brave bolt chose to strike the wrong place -- sinking every house in the good old neighborhood into darkness. Kimi, stubborn as always, pressed the power button on the remote so hard it left an imprint on her finger.

Teeth grating together, she unfolded herself to stand. Still wary from the anger in her eyes earlier, he didn't move but watched her as she approached him. Letting her study him for a minute, he didn't protest when she climbed into his lap. A bit confused, he only moved to wrap his arm around her. He was a bit surprised by the natural feel of their position, but relaxed into holding her, the scent of her hair intoxicating. She'd always been such a big tough girl, it's unbelievable the way she can tuck into him.

"I'm not mad about the pizza," she tipped her head up to him, stretching out her legs to where her head was resting on his lap.

He smiled, "I know. You're mad because I'm disrespectful."

"No," she nodded her head, then reconsidered once seeing his shocked expression: "Well, you have no right to be disrespectful. I guess I'm just frustrated with not knowing what's going on."

"The way I see it," he struggled to find words, so she interrupted him.

"We've had some close calls."

"Oh yeah," he breathed, mind flickering over Tommy coming across a bra in his back seat definitely not belonging to Lil, being faced with disbelief for not acknowledging a cheerleader's crush on him, Lil knocking on the door to his bedroom when they'd thought they had at least another fifteen minutes together.

"..and if we _do _get found out," they both shuddered at the situation, "I just don't know what I'd say. 'Oh, well, Phil just jammed his tongue down my throat because we were bored one afternoon.'"

He made an exasperated noise of shock -- "_I _certainly didn't make the first move!"

"Oh, of course you didn't, baby," she'd begun to pick at her fingernails, eyes flashing up every now and again to read his expression.

Phil, however, was looking straight ahead, with a look in his eyes rarely seen: the cogs between his ears were at work.

"What if we didn't get caught?"

"Oh, yes," she sarcastically went along, laughing, "Because we're not freakishly close to our friends, and one of them is not the most curious around. Also, there is not the obligation of a gossip-hunting upper classman who seems to know the interior of our lives despite her regular declarations of hatred. Oh, and on top of that, in our perfect existance, we never make mistakes."

"That's not what I mean. What if we just.. told them.."

Kimi interrupted in her lowest voice to imitate Phil: "'and then, Chuck, your sister totally launched herself at me! But honest, I behaved myself.' Good plan!"

"...that we're dating?"

That certainly stopped the sarcasm of the Asian beauty. She tipped her head back on his lap, eyebrows crinkled in confusion, eyes sparkling. Phil's hand was flat on the crown of her head, his brown eyes looked at her shocked face with amusement.

"Dating? Well, if you count the middleschool playground, then I see," Phil had known Kimi for so long he read the unsteadiness in her voice, and enjoyed, for once, having the upperhand over the witty girl.

"No. If we start," Phil took a steadying breath, "dating, then not much will change."

"Not much will change!" she echoed in disbelief.

Gaining confidence, he explains himself in conviction: "you'd have to suffer through having your name attached to mine. We would have to do things together, and, though it may be hard for you, I would take you to nice places with no expense to you. The hooking up wouldn't stop, at least not if you're asking me, and my obsession with whip--"

"For the millionth time, not in a billion years am I even _considering _the whipped cream."

"Is that a yes about dating, then?" he questioned, the mood shifting.

They hung in limbo in the living room, balancing between two alternatives, not pausing to question the surrealness of the situation. Phil left the ball in Kimi's court, having proposed founding a relationship that could very easily change the dynamic of their group that only altered as they aged yet remained tight.

"Yes," she said simply, voice light, and they shared a grin as he dropped his face to peck her lips.

* * *

**author ssssssays.. **hey guys! this is the long-awaited companion piece to the tommy/lil fic _stormy nights_ (which can be found here:http/ that fic explains why the finster house is empty when phil comes over. this fic was written in past tense.. then present tense.. then past tense, so if there are some verbage errors, i must have missed them in the nine-hundred times i changed them. ah, not much to say, except that it gotinsanely long andinsanely sappy right there 'round the middle where kimi climbs into his arms. haha i'm usually not one to write that but, it was valentine's day and i'd eaten many a chocolate box.

and .. yay, rugrats! and, yay, **reviews**!


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